Alpine hare. 135 
have a singular method of giving alarm. When 
danger is threatened,, they thump on the earth 
with one of their hind feet ; and thus produce a 
sound that can be heard a great way by animals 
near the surface. This Dr. Darwin, from its 
singularity, and its aptness to the situation of the 
animals, concludes (though apparently upon false 
grounds) to be an artificial sign, and merely ac- 
quired from their having experienced its utility. 
He will not allow of any thing like an instinctive 
propensity. 
We have the following account in Dr. Anderson’s 
Recreations of Agriculture, of the regular pro- 
duction of a singular variety of the rabbit, with 
only one ear. A gentleman of my acquaintance 
chanced to find a rabbit among his breed that had 
only one ear ; he watched the progeny of that 
creature, and among them he found one of the 
opposite sex that had only one ear also ; he paired 
these two rabbits together ; and has now a breed 
of rabbits one-eared, which propagate as fast, and 
as constant produce their like, as the two-eared 
rabbits, from which they were originally descend- 
ed.” 
The flcsh/'which was forbidden to the Jews 
and Mahometans, is well known to he very deli- 
cate. 
Alpine hare. 
/ 
The Alpine hare is about nine inches in length. 
It has a long head and whiskers ; and above each 
eye there are two very long hairs. The ears are 
short and rounded. The fur is dusky at the roots, 
of a bright bay at the ends, slightly tipped with 
white, and intermixed with long dusky hairs ; at 
first sight, however, the animals seem of a bright 
unmixed bay colour. 
